A City Prepared for Disaster Is a City that Looks to the Future

Back in May, there were reports that the rebuilt levees in New Orleans were still leaking, despite the fact that storm season had nearly arrived. One example of a leaker was this one, a levee along the Industrial Canal that was patched up for nearly $22 million and barely managed to hold back the waters whipped up by yesterday's highly-diminished Hurricane Gustav. Though Gustav was predicted to possibly reach Category 4 and slam New Orleans directly, luckily the storm went down to a Category 2 and didn't pass directly over the city (Katrina, which flooded the city three years ago, was Category 3). It would seem New Orleans was saved by luck alone. But there are also signs that New Orleans is fast becoming one of the most disaster-prepared cities in the world. More »

This City Will Never Drown Again

This gorgeous image of a floating city is one design team's idea of what New Orleans might look like in the future. Let me add to that: a better future, where urban design is graceful, humane, and forward-looking. Their idea is to create low-cost houses that are buoyant, and that survive floods by welcoming the Mississippi River into the city. More »

A Utopian Future for the New Orleans Riverfront in 200 Years

The brainfarm over at Sentient Developments calls our attention to the concept designs of Adam Benton, who has worked on Stargate among other things. Here you see a sumptuous illustration of a forested world dotted with space ports. When I imagine a Utopian future for New Orleans, this is what I see: a beautiful, clean Mississippi River edged with graceful, high-density housing and thick wetlands. If you want to see more of Benton's curvacious, festively-colored space ships, click on. More »

First Look at the Future of the New Orleans Waterfront

A team of architecture firms has released the first sketches of plans to rebuild the New Orleans waterfront. (Final plans will be announced in February.) They include developing trails and buildings a four mile stretch along the Mississippi River, giving people more access to the water and views of its serpentine banks. At the center of the project is this bent warehouse (above), which will be broken in half (below) to create a glass-enclosed parklike area where people can take in views of the river. Images courtesy of TEN. More »

A Model Of Urban Growth In Living Matter

A New Orleans artist has created a bio-art project about the future of cities. Artist Allison Kudla created an algorithm that combines urban growth patterns with the growth of cells. Then she used a robot arm to print a representation of it onto 4 foot-by-6 foot sheets using agar, a living and growing gelatin used in biology experiments. This is just one of the weird science-art projects on display this weekend at the DesCours festival in New Orleans. There's even an art project about talking to people in other cities using your ass. More »